Saul Leiter: Early Color Hardcover – Illustrated, 15 Jan. 2006

Looking a Saul Leiter's astonishing photographs, so beautifully reproduced in this excellent collection, it is always a surprise to note the dates in the accompanying captions. This volume covers the period 1948-1960. The conventional wisdom is that colour photography only became fully accepted and exhibited as 'art' during the late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies. These stunning images make one aware of what a preposterous and narrow minded view that was. Leiter's training as a painter clearly gave him a deep understanding of the compositional importance of colour. He used that understanding to create images that took photography to the edge of abstraction and that display the same affinity for the beauty of the grids and lines of cityscapes as can be found in the work of abstract expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko or Agnes Martin.Colour itself is as much the subject of these images as the people and scenes they so obliquely depict. The more you study these photographs, the more extraordinary they become - not least for the many paradoxes they contain. Often they look as if they have been snatched quickly. However, the composition and framing are always so meticulous as to contradict the snapshot aesthetic. The detail is often incredibly minimal and the colour extremely muted (see 'Foot on El', 1954). However, what detail there is is always hugely evocative, and despite the subdued colour, these images would not be as powerful in black and white. A friend I showed this book to remarked that one can almost taste and smell these scenes. And that is it in a nutshell. Whenever we experience an emotion it is always accompanied by a sensation, a texture, a sound, a scent, an angle of light - and this is psychological colour that taps into those emotional connections through our sensual memory.Leiter seems to have been the consummate colour photographer. I am surprised that his work is not more celebrated. And I can't wait to get my hands on the partner volume, Early Black and White, due in March 2010.

This is a nicely presented book published by STEIDL to commemorate an exhibition of Saul Leiters work at the HCB Foundation early in 2008.I bought this book after reading an article in the photographic press, I was attracted to the gentle style of his street photography and the pastel colours of his work. Apart from an introduction, the text is by Leiter followed by dates and details of every photograph in the book, that takes you up to page 20, the rest of the book shows his work, one photograph per page up to 151, there are no captions against the photographs. Leiter himself writes about his approach to photography and his interest in using colour slide film (probably Kodachrome?). The book also includes monochrome works.I understand that one of the techniques used by Leiter was to use out of date colour film hence the unpredictable colour balance and rather nice pastel hues in the colour shots. Leiter was a painter before he was a photographer, this certainly shows in his colour compositions some of which resemble impressionist paintings.Leiter worked mainly on the streets of his own neighbourhood (Pittsburgh?) and produced some wonderfully subtle images which make a nice contrast to some of to-days "in your face" street photography. The photographs were all taken in the 1950s. Every serious student of photography should buy this book for their library.

I really like this book, I love the images in it I really like the way he captures his neighbour hood in the days before social media and smart phones, for any street photographer there are certainly lessons that can be learnt from looking at the images.So why only 3 stars?Well he would have shot on Kodachrome slide film, which even back then had really vibrant reds, yellows, blues, something Kodak was known for, yet the images printed in the book lack virtually all of this brightness and vibrancy making them look washed out. Who ever did the proof run for this really should go look at photographs to see just what they have left out.Also a number of pages, the print run had just been finished and the papers stacked on top of each other when the print was still wet. It has not distracted from the image but left a part print on the other page. Not good QA.As much as enjoy this book I do feel a little disappointed in the printing or re-printing of it with all the modern day colour calibrations and soft proof printing it really should have been a much brighter and more colourful book.

Amazing book, even better than expected.Seller- superb! Responded to my queries prior to purchase and was just so helpful!! I would definitely recommend this seller.

This is a beautifully produced book which I bought at a very reasonable price. The prints are faithfully reproduced with that washed out look that Leiter favoured and nicely laid out. My only quibble, knowing his early work, is that I would take some of the pictures out and swap them with others from the same period. But that's just a personal thing and would probably apply to any collection of photos. A super little book. Well worth having.

Good quality / prompt delivery.

Great book. Awesome content.

No other words needed, trust me. This is essential